Titus 1
SIBVer. 1.** Paul,—who, as a Christian and minister, is the devoted servant of the ever blessed God, and who is graciously dignified with the commission, qualifications, and powers, of an extraordinary messenger of Jesus Christ, to preach his gospel of salvation in all at its extent to Gentiles, as well as Jews,—according to the doctrine of faith which is embraced by, and the means of working faith in, all those whom he chose for his peculiar people before the foundation of the world; and according to their knowledge, approbation, and confession of its infallible truth, which is suited, designed, and made effectual to them for promoting practical godliness in heart and life, in all the duties thereof towards God or man: 2. Which truth is believed and professed, and godliness practised, in the exercise of a lively hope of the incorruptible and undefiled inheritance of eternal life, which the infinitely sincere and infallibly faithful JERROVAH promised to them in Christ, as their Covenant head, before the world began, and quickly after the fall published to our first parents in paradise
Titus 1:3
And which now, in the fulness of time, he has clearly made known by the publication of his gospel, which is revealed and committed to me as his apostle, to dispense it to Gentiles as well as Jews, according to the express commandment of Jesus Christ our divine Saviour, from sin and wrath
Titus 1:4
To his dearly beloved Titus, of whose instruction in the principles of the Christian religion, spiritual regeneration, and saving faith, God made him the instrument,—heartily wishes all the abundant manifestations of divine favour, and all peace and prosperity, in time or eternity, from God the Father as the fountain of all good, and from our Lord Jesus Christ as the revealer of, purchaser, and bestower of it
Titus 1:5
You well know that I left you at Crete, when I departed from it, that you might complete whatever remained unfinished, with regard to the doctrine, worship, discipline, and manners, in the Christian congregations there planted; and particularly, that, as an evangelist, you might preside in the election and ordination of teaching and ruling elders or bishops, to take the oversight of the professed Christians in every city there, and feed them with knowledge and understanding according to the orders which I left with you
Titus 1:6
Remember therefore that these overseers ought by all means to be persons of an unspotted moral character, unblemished with polygamy or causeless divorce;—careful to bring up their children in the nurture, admonition, and ways of the Lord;—and never suffering them to live disgracefully in a luxurious, dissolute, refractory, ungovernable, disobedient, manner
Titus 1:7
For the nature of an evangelical office, the honour of religion, and the good of souls, require that church rulers, particularly ministers, be under no reproach or scandal in their life and conversation, be not chargeable with neglect, unfaithfulness, or partiality in dispensing the mysteries of God;—nor of a head-strong, conceited, obstinate, inflexible temper,—nor of a hasty spirit, falling into a passion upon every slight provocation;—nor lovers of, nor addicted to, immoderate drinking of liquor;—nor contentious and violent in their behaviour, ready to strike such as displease them;—nor of a niggardly, sordid, covetous, spirit, bent to catch and keep all that they can of base worldly gain, by which the consciences of men are so frequently defiled: 8. But persons who take pleasure, on all proper occasions, to exert themselves in acts of benevolence, particularly to religious strangers, travelling preachers, and persecuted Christians;—being hearty lovers and encouragers of whatever is good, having a cordial affection for all sincere and pious men,—and being modest and humble, grave and prudent, upright and faithful, in all they say or do;—exemplarily holy in their whole conversation,—and chaste and moderate in their designs and pursuits after the pleasures of this life
Titus 1:9
They ought also to be well enlightened and established in their faith and profession of the pure truths of the gospel, as they have learned them from their inspired writers and publishers; that, by a due application thereof they may be able to comfort believers, and excite them to their duty; and to confute the errors, silence the cavils, and rebuke the perverseness, of opposers
Titus 1:10
For in Crete, as well as in other places, I understand there are many pretenders to Christianity, especially Jewish zealots for the Mosaic ceremonies, who are refractory and disorderly, not submitting to any divine rule in their doctrines or manners; but are most pernicious, proud, self-conceited, disputers about trifles, and crafty seducers of the simple
Titus 1:11
Whose mouths ought to be stopped, and their errors confuted, by scriptural proofs, solid arguments, and good examples, since they are so indefatigable and subtle, insinuating themselves into Christian families, and carrying them off from Jesus Christ and the gospel to the ceremonies and law of Moses,—teaching and urging upon them things utterly false, and inconsistent with the true method of salvation by Christ alone;—and all this to procure for themselves the sordid and defiling treasures of this world by methods suited to the lusts of the Cretians
Titus 1:12
For you will remember that Epimenides, their own poet and supposed prophet, describes that nation as constantly addicted to lying, and as crafty and savage in their temper; luxuriously, and even ravenously, gluttonous, and exceedingly lazy and idle, and so exposed to every temptation. 13, 14. And indeed the perfidious, mischievous, and sensual, conduct of the judaising Christians and their disciples still confirm the justness of that description: it is therefore necessary that you deal plainly and sharply with them, that neither seducers nor seduced may dare to persist any longer in their evil principles and practices, but be recovered to, and settled in, the true and uncorrupted doctrines of faith, and may no more attend to, or believe, and be carried away with, the fabulous traditions of the Jews, or the imperious injunctions of men prejudiced against, and gone off from the truth of the gospel,—relative to ceremonial rites of clean and unclean meats or drinks, which are no longer obligatory under the New Testament dispensation
Titus 1:15
By real Christians, whose hearts and consciences are, through faith, purged by the blood of Christ, every kind of wholesome food may be lawfully eaten; but by those who are still unregenerated, and under the power of unbelief with respect to gospel truths, and who are cleaving to Mosaical institutions instead of Christ, nothing, however good or lawful in itself, can be used without sin or defilement, as their own understanding and conscience, those leading and directive powers of their soul, are quite misguided and corrupted
Titus 1:16
They indeed make high professions and boasts of their knowledge of God and his will; but their practices are a plain confutation of all such pretences, and manifest them to be detestable enemies to God and godliness, unbelievers of the gospel revelation, disobedient to its authority, and utterly injudicious and unfit for performing any thing good, and so disapproved of God